SIR ROBERT MUIR, SEPSIS AND SCOTTISH HEALTHCARE

During World War I, Muir served as Inspector of Laboratories in Scotland and as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Army Medical Core (Territorial Force), responsible for the bacteriological and pathological work of the third and fourth Scottish General Hospitals. These hospitals were in Stobhill, Glasgow, and were requisitioned for war work in August 1914. Wounded soldiers from the continent arrived by train, a temporary platform was built in the grounds of the hospitals. Together the hospitals had 70 beds for Officers, and 1629 beds for other ranks. 

After the war, Muir served on numerous committees in addition to his work at the University of Glasgow and Western Infirmary. He acted as Chairman of the Medical Research Council's investigation into Foot and Mouth Disease in 1928, and served on the committee investigating a second outbreak of the same disease until 1932. Muir also sat on the councils of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the British Empire Cancer Campaign, both of which merged in 2002 to form Cancer Research UK. Muir also assisted work at the Royal Glasgow Cancer Hospital (now the Beatson Institute) and the Western Asylum's Research Institute, which later became part of Gartnavel Hospital. Muir contributed freely to many worthy, local causes and gained much insight from his experiences, which no doubt added to his extensive scientific acumen.